Pantry Pride Preparing To Sell Its Florida Stores To Red Appl

June 28, 1985|By Jim Talley, Business Writer

In a move to get out of the grocery store business, Fort Lauderdale-based Pantry Pride Inc. has entered into a preliminary agreement to sell its remaining Florida stores to a New York-based grocery store chain.

The president of privately held Red Apple Supermarkets, John Katz, confirmed Thursday that his company signed a letter of agreement last week to buy 44 Pantry Pride stores in Florida.

``We`d been negotiating for a few weeks, and we hope to make it final within the next 30 to 45 days,`` Katz said.

The deal would affect Pantry Pride`s 38 regular stores and its 12 Sun Supermarkets, as well as the four 73,000-square-foot Super Sun locations set to open this year in Broward and Dade counties, Katz said. He declined to disclose the cost of the pending sale.

Meanwhile, Miami-based Super Valu Stores Inc. said Thursday that it has files suit in U.S. District Court against Pantry Pride for breach of contract. The suit, which seeks an unspecified sum in damages, alleges that Pantry Pride ``is conspiring to sell its supermarkets to a third party without giving Super Valu a right of first refusal.``

That provision was granted in 1983 when Super Valu contracted to buy Pantry Pride`s Miami warehouse facility, Super Valu said. In addition, the Miami company said Pantry Pride has broken its agreement to buy exclusively from Super Valu`s warehouse, and it claims ``Pantry Pride has libeled Super Valu by contending that Super Valu`s prices for merchandise are non- competitive.``

A Pantry Pride spokesman, David Kromfield, said, ``We have no comment on any sale of assets,`` and company officials declined comment on the suit.

If the transaction with Red Apple is completed, the direction Pantry Pride would take is unclear. Earlier this month, Pantry Pride shareholders voted overwhelmingly for a $60 million deal giving control of the company to MacAndrews & Forbes, a privately held New York-based conglomerate.

That deal will provide a substantial infusion of capital to Pantry Pride to enter other, unspecified lines of business, company officials have said. Four days before the special shareholders meeting, Pantry Pride announced it had filed registration papers to cover a public offering of more than $500 million in securities for ``acquisition purposes.``

Within the past year, the 52-year-old company has diversified away from the grocery business by buying a drug store chain and a company that sells appliances on credit to members of the armed forces. In March, Pantry Pride sold its Jacksonville-area stores.